1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns a method for protecting dressings and/or wounded skin regions of the body. It also concerns a protection kit to be used for the application of this method.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98.
Various devices have been offered to this day to ensure the protection of dressings applied to wounded skin areas of the body or directly on these areas in order to prevent these dressings or wounds from becoming wet or soiled by splashes of water or other contaminated fluids. For example, these devices are intended for persons wearing any dressings so they can bathe or take a shower without needing to worry about them getting wet.
The devices of the state of the art consist of soft, dedicated sheets, generally of rectangular shape (WO-89/03765, WO-99/02110), or of sheaths (WO-91/17733, WO-94/24971, FR-2 706 290), or of sleeves (EP-0 358 451, WO-93/14730, FR-2 686 786) provided with permanent and original means to allow their removable attachment to the areas to be protected.
A common inconvenience of all these devices that is especially of concern to individuals, is due to the fact that the dimensions, shapes and locations of the surfaces that are covered by the dressings or of the lesions, are unforeseeable and highly variable. Potential users wind up purchasing and keeping a wide range of sizes of protection devices in order to cover a significant range of surfaces. The result is that the purchaser will be in the possession of a certain number of items that are either too small or too large that will never be used or which will have to be discarded after a certain period of conservation. Furthermore, the shape of these items is not adaptable to the shape of the dressings or to that of the traumatized skin areas that need to be protected, the effect being that the shape can be a source of hindrance of movement of the limb or the part of the body covered by the dressing.
In order to solve another problem, one is familiar (WO-94/23677) with a thermal blanket that can be used to prevent a heat loss of the parts of the human or animal body, consisting of a reflective metal foil or a metallized plastic film provided with perforations to allow gas exchanges and attached to the skin by means of an adhesive tape, preferably double-sided, and also provided with perforations. Such a device cannot be used to ensure efficient protection of traumatized skin areas of the body against the risk of soiling or contamination through contact with impure elements, in particular with polluted fluids, not only because the cover sheet is provided with perforations, but mainly because the use of double-sided tape, whether with or without perforations, to ensure fastening of said sheet on the skin, cannot guarantee impermeability between them especially when the covered areas present irregular and/or moving shapes.
One objective of the invention is to remedy the inconveniences of the protection devices that have been proposed until now.